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The Necrotechs Workshop – XLII – The Slaugher Fleet

Much like the Article on the Black Industries theme, This weeks article takes a shot at breaking down the Slaughter Raiders, newly revealed during the Themepocalypse. This theme focuses on the living, non-satyxis forces that sail the seas of the Iron Kingdoms. Lets take a look!

Man! You know whats metal? Slaughter Raiders. I like the name and I like the imagery. Its got some cool things going on that aren’t either Dark or Black or Ghost.

The Slaughter Raiders

At the end of last week, after I talked about the Black Industries, Will’s article on the Slaughter Fleet went up. This is a confusing theme list, because I, like many I expect, were under the impression that the Black Fleet was going to be a theme list. Instead, we are going to be given three Pirate Theme lists, one Thrall List, and one Warjack list. This presents an interesting dynamic when both talking and playing, both with and against Cryx, as it will lead to most of the discussion revolving around Fleets, which gives them a much larger piratical and sea fairing focus than they have had in years before. It really comes to the fore with the themes, and I think that may, I hope, be on purpose.

So, Lets get to the theme itself.

Here is the Theme, broken down to what is allowed.

Cryx Warcasters (This is an assumption, but seems pretty reliable)

Non-Character Warjacks

Black Ogrun Model/Units

Blighted Trollkin Model/Units

Scharde Model/Units

Misery Cage Solos

Satyxis Blood Priestess Solos.

Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius

Note – Below, in the list benefits, it allows you to take the Devils Shadow Mutineers as a Cryx, and not merc, unit.

Benefits

The Slaughter fleet may include one Mercenary Unit and one Mercenary solo that will work for Cryx. These may be partisan units for cryx and may include Attachments.

If the Devils Shadow Mutineers are included, they are considered to be a Cryx Unit instead of a Merc.

For every full 20 points of Cryx Model/Units in the army, you may add one solo or command attachment allowed to the army, free of cost.

Warjacks in the army gain Gang Fighter.

Add +2″ to your Deployment Zone

Lets start to take this apart, shall we.

Benefits

I’ll go over the first benefit with models/units mostly because its not a real benefit because every list has something similar.

The first real benefit is the free Solo or Command attachment for each 20 points of Cryx Units. The current choices are fairly easy as there are only two solos and no command attachments. This means, you only need 40 points of bodies to fill out the free points slots. Sadly, its hard to get there, with the only exact setup I can come up with being Min Bloodgorgers x2, Max Black Ogrun x2. With 35 more points of jacks, its going to be hard to make it worth with anyone but a jack focused caster like either Mortenebra, Gaspy 3, or Venethrax.

the second benefit is really what I see as the meat and potatoes of the list, granting Cryx Jacks gangfighter. This really interests me as it is both an accuracy buff and a damage buff rolled into one that might be able to push some of our lighter jacks over the top in terms of damage production, and our heavies right up there with them. The Scharde Pirates are the real enablers here, as they are small based and easier to get into position. That said, a swarm of bloodgorgers could work really well, as they have overtake and berserk and could get to some surprising places.

Finally, the +2″ of depolyment zone space is simply amazing. its always been one of my favorites as a bonus, because its passive and provides a 20% further bonus or greater on your zone. Getting the Trolls up there, honestly, is a big deal, and the AD on the Scharde Islanders (Tactics also seems to show that they’ll get an attachment you can get for free) with +2″ and assault just seems like its minting coins.

Models/Units

First, we don’t really know much about the Scharde Islanders or the Misery Cages beyond the spoilers from Lock and Load which also gave us a bit of information on the Smog Belchers and Jusica Bloodtongue. The Scharde are a mysterious questionmark that might make the list a little more compelling if they offer something big and different. They are a huge thorn in the side of trying to make heads or tails of this list and what it is going to do. To that end, however, I still want to give it my best shot and hope that it all shakes out ok for these guys.

Having all cryx warcasters available is a pretty good start. None of our themes are caster restricted, which is really nice. This means that if Ghost Fleet ever falls from favor, or Dark Host is teched against, that we’ll be able to use powerhouses like Denny 1, Coven, and Lich 2 here, where applicable.

Non-Character Cryx warjacks is pretty much a given. Its an interesting way to tone down the power of character jacks and their prevalence in many lists, but also allows them to be taken with their respective casters. This gives us access to work horse arc nodes, sneeky Stalkers, and the amazing Seether/Inflictor chassis with is pair of great jacks.

Black Ogrun model Units is currently limited to only the Boarding crew, but come early 2018, we should have the Black Ogrun Ironmongers and the Black Ogrun Smog belchers. Add in (see below) the fact that we can take an Ogrun Bokur, and we can have a pretty solid Ogrun based list. It might not be perfect, but its got the capacity to sit on a lot of cheap wounds. The current status of the Black Ogrun Boarding Party is pretty miserable, which makes me sad. They are Innately MAT 7 , one of the best in class in our faction, and are extremely cheap for the wounds they bring. Their defense and arm, however, leave something to be desired, boasting the most pitiful of 12/15’s. While each model theoretically takes 3 shots from an unboosted pow 10 gun to kill, that math is often skewed and they are allocated those sweet, sweet boosted pow 12’s that are now so common in the game, peeling them off the board in quick fashion. Against charges, they fair no better, and with RAT 5 and 8″ guns, they aren’t removing enough models prior to being charged that they make the, markedly cheap, investment worth while. If they go into CID and get something to make their points worth while, and maybe a bump in cost, they should be a decent investment and a solid elite troop. Smog belchers, with cool cannons and prevention of healing, should be a great central troop, but no one can say anything about the Ironmongers that is greater than speculation except they will be able to repair. Personally, I expect them to be a 3 man unit akin to mini Raluks, but who knows.

Blighted Trollkin are one of my favorite units in the game, conceptually. I waited for a long time to get murderous, crazy trolls into my faction. Now, though, they are a shadow of their former self. In MK I they were insane, in MK II they were pretty good, and in the current edition, they have simply paled against all the other options. They are in a tough spot, something between a defensive and accurate Raiders and the offensive and powerful Banes. Caught between two great options and able to do neither job really well, they sit disused on the shelf. Jusika, the future officer for the unit, provides some interesting abilities, but it is yet to be seen how she’ll actually pan out on the field, yet more mysteries to be revealed.

We can’t forget everyones favorite bloodgorger, Gerlak Slaughterborn. At 7 points, and possibly free in the list, he’ll be a solid addition to many, and often the first free model added. He’s accurate, can plow through enemy infantry, and can even give the Bloodgorgers Berserk if he is close enough. A very decent first reach.

Aiakos is a great addition to almost any list, and can bring some speed and maneuverability to a warjack or two, if your looking to slide him into a list. Its expensive, though, and doesn’t count toward your free solos, so you want to make sure your looking at him with care and vigor before committing to him, even if he is free. His jacks won’t be. They do form a really interesting little synergistic setup, though, with him being a warrior model and possibly granting his own warjacks gangfighter.

This is the first time I remember being told of a new Satyxis Solo specifically. I believe I remember Doug Hamilton talking about sculpting a new solo, but I thought he was referring to Axiara. He could have been mentioning this one. This is interesting because it could provide all sorts of different abilities to the army that takes them from about average to Over the Top.

The Devils Shadow Mutineers is a very interesting addition to the list, especially with the possibility of getting Cryx buffs and debuffs for them, and with the addition of the merc/minion solo/unit, they can possibly crank their flexibility up to 11. I look forward to putting this unit in almost every list.

Finally, there is a massive selection of Merc options for both units and solos. In lists like this that lack a real way to put out Dark Shroud, both Gorman and Ragman are attractive options for the solo slot. Casters without Ghost Walk will likely reach for Saxon for pathfinder, and casters vulnerable to spells could make a fair argument for Orin Midwinter. Unit wise, Press Gangers can make for a good unit with AD and recursion in a list that normally can’t get it, and Sea Dogs are a pretty solid choice, with guns, AD, and the ability to be buffed from someone like Hawke.

Realistically, the current options are miserably limited.

All Warcasters

All Warjacks

Bloodgorgers

Black Ogrun Boarding Party

Devils Shadow Mutineers

Gerlak Slaughterborn

Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius

You also gain a Merc Solo and a Merc unit., above, but that is it.

The jacks, with gaining a benefit from Gang Fighter, are pretty good no matter where you go, but there are a few that are better than others. The Kraken and Sepulcher both have pretty solid roles here, with the Sepulcher being able to get up to a decent power (21) and MAT (8) against some of the tougher targets they normally run into (Jacks, beasts, casters), and the Kraken goes from great to awesome, tacking on an additional +2 to hit and damage to its already impressive 22, topping out at 24, though the MAT remains at 8. A caster with Infernal Machine could be really scary with a colossal, as MAT 8 with three dice to hit could chew up casters.

The crab jacks; Leviathan, Harrower and Desecrator, gain a lot from the bonus as well, with lower mat and higher damage output. Infernal Machine on the Desecrator with Gang Fighter sounds like a good day to me, and even just a simple MAT 8 with Crit Shred and P+S 19 on the melee is fantastic. Give him to Aiakos for +2 speed, or Asphyxious 3 for Mobility, and he’s going to town. He’s not going to get accumulator, but the loss may be worth it, and could be excellent in tandem with Agathia, who brings both dark shroud and gang figher on her own.

The Seether likely doesn’t need the bonus, but there isn’t a single person playing Cryx who wouldn’t giggle like a child when they have P+S 19 fists with MAT 10, its just a great day all around.

The lights are were everyone reaches initially because they are generally accurate and need just a touch of damage output to be really nasty, and this helps in a solid way. Mostly, though, they are talking about Stalkers, who are already insane. Scavengers also can get great output with P+S 13 finisher attacks. The rest of the lights are harder to get work out of, though I am interested in a bizzaro all-chicken list.

Lists

So, there are two lists that I’m contemplating trying, even with all the current lack of options. The first is an Agathia list with a bunch of lights, and the second is a Gaspy 3 list with a gentle mix of models.

This has AD models that can get in the face of the enemy, and a way to delver them through terrain and gunfire. With Parasite and the possibility of Dark Shroud, she can amp up a light or two to insane potential (Stalkers get to P+S 19!) on a selected target. She seems like she’s going to be able to play this theme pretty well.

Gaspy 3 brings a fairly different list, though it has the same basics:

Pathfinder for his jacks and a single unit, who will likely have Cloak of Ash, with Free Gerlak and a pile of damage buffed jacks. Calamity will make the Seethers a brutal MAT 12 P+S 21. Its good times for everyone!

Let me know what lists you can make with this, maybe I’m missing something pretty critical. Maybe we just need to wait for the Scharde Raiders, and I’m fine with that, too.